Wood filler that is actually stainable

I have used a few different types of the Elmer's wood filler that states it is stainable, but whenever I stain the area, the stain doesn't take too well. I usually use it to cover up countersink holes and there is always a lighter round spot there. Any ideas as to what I should do or buy? I went to HD and asked and the guy handed me a Minwax product that matched the stain perfectly. Stupid me, I didn't read it until after I opened it and it turned out to be a clay. It matched perfectly, but it doesn't harden. Thanks

As Mike said, the stainable fillers are somewhat of a myth. They stain, just not the same color as the wood. For counter sinks, I'd use wood plugs. for nail holes, I stain and poly and then fill them in with the wax crayon sticks from Minwax.

Another option is to mix sawdust from the actual wood with glue, and use the mix to fill the nail holes. It works pretty well, and will take stain, but due to grain issues, will not look perfect. Plugs look pretty good, but due to the round shape, they are also visible, even though they take stain correctly.

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You can also get in a craft store a basic set of acrylic artists colors and a few small artists brushes. Mix red,yellow and blue and you have brown. Add a little water and it is a stain instead of paint. Need golden oak-add more yellow, cherry-add more red, walnut-add more blue. You can match any color. Results vary with skill level. Guys that are sent out by furniture stores to fix dings in furniture shipped to customers if they are good can make invisible repairs.

have you tried mixing stain pigment from can with filler then hole filling? try on scrap first

This is what I do too - it works really well, but if doing a dark stain you have to add quite a bit of stain to the filler and this slows down the curing time so plan accordingly (rather than 24 hours, I've had to wait as long as 3 days for the filler to fully harden).

This is what I do too - it works really well, but if doing a dark stain you have to add quite a bit of stain to the filler and this slows down the curing time so plan accordingly (rather than 24 hours, I've had to wait as long as 3 days for the filler to fully harden).

I have actually tried that, but it didn't really work that well for me. I'm going to try a bunch of these suggestions on a scrap piece of wood, including the above one, again. Thanks a lot